Thursday, April 29, 2010

24/7 - for migrant workers' rights

24/7 is a campaign created by coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations and independent activists. One aspect of the campaign is the Twog Week initiated by Simba Russeau of Taste Culture and Nadine Moawad of Nasawiya.
Our aim is to expose the poor working conditions under which migrant workers and refugees have to work in Lebanon. We also want to put pressure on the government to uphold their commitments towards migrant workers. And finally we want to bring people’s attention to the mistreatment migrant workers and all those who “look different” endure on the street and in their everyday life.
Why 24/7?
The Lebanese Government approved last year a unified contract for all migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, in addition, several Human Rights agreements, which are signed by Lebanon, and the Lebanese constitution supposedly protect human being in Lebanon from slavery and slavery like conditions. So far this has not prevented employers of migrant domestic workers from treating their employees as slaves.
Perhaps the most significant example would be the fact that these employees work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are given a few hours of sleep, but even then they are on stand-by as employers reserve the right to wake them at any moment of the night for any reason imaginable.